21 July, 2017
If the government meeting goes ahead, it will mark the first official inter-Korea talks since December 2015.
North Korea does not publish economic data.
"The North often takes a considerable amount of time before responding to Seoul's dialogue offers, to offer their own counter-proposals", said Cho.
China in February stopped coal imports from the North, facing increasing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to tame its unpredictable neighbor, but has continued to trade other commodities including iron and iron ore, providing a lifeline to the isolated regime.
North Korea may be preparing another intercontinental ballistic missile test in about two weeks, according to a report citing US intelligence sources.
Still, the provision will not apply if transactions are determined to be exclusively for livelihood purposes and unrelated to generating revenue for North Korea's nuclear or ballistic missile programs or other activities prohibited by previous United Nations resolutions.
It estimated that per capita income in the north stood at 1.46 million South Korean won, or $US1,300.
Shin added North Korea had boosted electricity production in 2016 but could not confirm whether this was linked to missile manufacturing.
Diplomats say Russia and China, North Korea's neighbour and top trading partner, are prepared to accept tougher sanctions on North Korea only after a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, and Russian officials say this month's test was of a shorter-range missile.
Gross domestic product expanded 3.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to an estimate from the Bank of Korea.
Mining and manufacturing make up the biggest portion of North Korea's industry, accounting a year ago for 33.2 percent of the sector.
The U.S. Department of State on Wednesday issued its Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, which listed Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism for the second year in a row, but excluded North Korea.
Overall exports from North Korea, excluding trade with South Korea, rose 4.6 percent past year to $2.82 billion thanks to shipments of fishery products, which soared 74.0 percent, the South's central bank said. Therefore, one hopes that the latest outreach by President Moon leads to the second edition of the "Sunshine Policy" that the two Koreas witnessed between 1998 and 2008, when the world saw a flurry of political engagements, agreements and exchange programmes between them.
